Rahul to go on fresh padayatra; Maharashtra Congress to hold own march: Patole

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will embark on a fresh padayatra (foot march) from Gujarat to Meghalaya and during that period leaders and workers of the party’s Maharashtra unit would criss-cross the state, MPCC president Nana Patole said on Tuesday.

He said the opposition party will also undertake a bus yatra next month to interact with people and expose the BJP-led government at the Centre and the Eknath Shinde dispensation in Maharashtra. The BJP is part of the Shinde government.

Patole said Gandhi, whose Lok Sabha membership has been restored after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a defamation case, will be accorded a grand welcome by the party when he arrives in Mumbai for a meeting of the opposition alliance INDIA in August-end.

We will start a padayatra (in Maharashtra) when Rahul Gandhi starts his own padayatra from Gujarat to Meghalaya. The programme (to carry out the march in the state) has been given to us by the All India Congress Committee (AICC), Patole told reporters here.

The Maharashtra Congress president did not give the dates for Gandhis next march, saying its schedule will be announced later.

The former Congress president had embarked on his Bharat Jodo Yatra in September last year and it culminated in January-end after covering some 4,000 km from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir.

Patole said he will himself lead the padayatra in eastern Vidarbha, which comprises districts of Wardha, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Gondia, Bhandara and Nagpur.

Leader of Opposition in the assembly Vijay Wadettiwar will lead the march in Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Akola and Yavatmal, which are located in western Vidarbha, said the Congress MLA.

Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan will lead the march in western Maharashtra, while Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad will head the yatra in the financial capital, he said.

Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat will be in charge of the programme in north Maharashtra, while former chief minister Ashok Chavan will lead the padayatra in the Marathwada region, Patole said.

The coastal Konkan region will be covered later and Patole will lead the march in Thane, Thorat in Palghar, Ashok Chavan in Raigad, Prithviraj Chavan in Ratnagiri and Wadettiwar in Sindhudurg.

The MPCC chief said the party has announced observers for all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

These observers will give a report to the state Congress by August 16 containing inputs and suggestions which can help strengthen the organisation, he said.

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